INGREDIENTS:
7 chicken thighs - bone in and skin on
1/3 pound cooked shrimp - medium sized
1 1/2 cups saffron rice
2 cups Swanson less sodium chicken stock
1/2 can of diced tomatoes-no salt added (14.5oz can)
1/2 cup frozen peas (optional)
1/2 sweet onion chopped
1/2 red onion chopped
1/2 small red pepper
1/2 small orange pepper
1/2 small green pepper
8 garlic cloves minced
1 lemon
Vegetable oil (or olive oil for taste)
DIRECTIONS:
-Heat approx 2 tbsp oil large skillet over medium-high heat to get the skilled hot
-Add chicken skin side down and brown 4 minutes
-Flip chicken and brown 2 minutes on the bottom side
-Add onions and garlic to the skillet and cook 3 more minutes
-Add rice to the skillet and stir to get rice coated with oil and juices
-Let the rice brown a little (stir as necessary)
-Add the diced tomatoes and a good amount of liquid from the can
-Allow to cook for a minute or two and do not stir often
-Add chicken stock
-Turn heat to medium-low and simmer covered (add salt if desired now or add later)
-In the meantime, heat 1 1/2 tbsp oil in a pan over medium-low heat to saute the peppers
-Saute the peppers until cooked but firm
-Check on the paella after 15 minutes or so to make sure there's enough liquid to cook the rice (if not, add more chicken stock)
-When the rice is almost finished, stir in the cooked shrimp, frozen peas and sauted peppers and re-cover until the rice is finsihed-approx 5 minutes (if the rice is already finished, then remove the skillet from the heat and let the paella flavors mix and cook by the steam from within)
-Leave covered until ready to serve and before serving, squeeze half the lemon over the paella
-Place a few lemon wedges or slices over the paella and serve!
*Note: Will likely need salting-I added some salt when I cooked the rice but it needed more when served-do not oversalt while cooking. We salted as necessary ourselves when eating.
